|
|
Shameless plug forum posting on Lulu.com
publication date: Jun 24, 2009
|
author/source: Jason West
|
Next
Hi folks
Okay, I've read the 'read this first' post and am ready for the barrage of insults :-) I'm used to it by now, a few of the 'old school' have been trying to rain on our parade for a while now. Can't think what they are worried about... "It is very funny to learn English at this school, when you are scared to speak with people you must visit this school" Claudia, 35, Germany Our first published English Out There course - Intermediate TD4 is a bit revolutionary. It can be used in the classroom, online in a virtual classroom, with Skype, with Messenger and out in the street with the locals. Every unit is focused in teaching some language and then facilitating real use of that language either face to face or online using social media and VoIP.  It has taken eight, yes, 8, years to get to this stage and to be honest I have no idea how many teachers from mid-2001 when we started 'til now have taught these units to real paying students in London, UK, but it is a lot. We have tweaked, re-written, edited and taught, then done it all again, many times. Finally we got some top TEFL writers to do their bit and got it all edited by a maestro of practical ELT, Tim Bowen. The result is materials that in their first review on TEFL.net were described as '21st century'. See the review here: http://edition.tefl.net/reviews/web-sites/languages-out-there/ A number of God-like people have made some nice comments about what we have created: "Congrats on the great review! It's good to see that you are getting more and more publicity. You have a great product". Eric Pang, President and COO, www.Italki.com. “I love that you are using Skype as a tool here—it's so obvious that I can't believe that no one's thought of this already. Kudos to you guys for making it happen”. Michael Boezi, Editorial Director, Flat World Knowledge, www.flatworldknowledge.com “The major ELT publishers should be doing something of this sort... However, despite what they say, they are heavily committed to a print-based business model. It could be their worst nightmare come true if someone like yourself in conjunction with a brand name and electronic distribution expertise can effectively market a product of this sort. It could be as revolutionary as LG Alexander’s materials were in the 70s when ELT suddenly became a seriously big business, and allowed companies like Longman and OUP to grow business units which nowadays are some of the biggest and most profitable parts of their portfolio”. Michael Johnson, ex-ELT director Pearson Namcom Speaking English School in Jaipur has recently become a member of our website and started teaching EOT in India. They have been using our materials for just a couple of months and their director, R.K. Vijay sent us this message a few days ago by email, “I want to promote your lessons. For that I have planned to publicise your website in India. And you know India is a big country so we can make a lot of business”. The units contain modern vocab and situations...some humour and some great copiable worksheets created by those funky people at the The Guardian. Let us know what you think and if you like what we have done, spread the word! We've got another 5 levels for teachers and 6 for self-study with Mp3s at http://www.languagesoutthere.com and you can see all of the lesson plans and worksheets in TD4 on Scribd at: http://www.scribd.com/group/75556-intermediate-spoken-english-out-there-course. There are also the Elementary SS2 self-study plans on there for preview and all the MP3s that go with them are on podomatic.com for free at: http://languagesoutthere.podomatic.com/ You can buy our first new fangled course book for the age of free web communication at: http://stores.lulu.com/store.php?fAcctID=636365 And we have a group/forum on here where we invite you to discuss other 21st century ELT materials, who knows, you might have made some yourself. “I’ve never thought that I would enjoy this school this much. I think everyone must try something like that once in a lifetime, talking with people, it is just not good for your English, it is also good for your entire life”. Arda Ozdemir, 18, Turkey. Sorry for banging on... Cheers Jason Founder |
0 Comments Posted Leave a comment